It's really been 8 years since I used Blogger?  Wowza!
Lots of things have changed sin the last 8 years.  For starters, Blogger is now a part of Google.  And since I'm taking a class so I can get Level 1 & 2 Google Certification, I'm back!  I'm teaching high school special ed. now and have been since the beginning of this blog.  Going from middle school ELA & Computers to high school Math & Science has been quite the learning experience.  Health has gone increasingly haywire.

That's all I've got for now...

Thing 3...blogging (slightly out of order...please forgive me)

I have to say, I probably put it best in my comment on the Thing 3 page. I'm not a blogger. That's why I love Facebook & Twitter. I can update people on my life on the fly and in a few simple words...while I'm driving (which I know is completely WRONG and unsafe but I still do it anyway) while watching a presentation, sitting in an insanely boring meeting....you know the drill.

I love that through blogging I can keep up with my friend who joined the foreign service and moved to Africa for 2 years. The amazing (and sometimes scary) things I've been exposed to because of her blog continue to blow me away. I get to live vicariously through her, because anyone who knows me well, knows I hate to be more than an hour or so from my family. I love that because of blogging, I can interact with kids & teachers in other countries and learn more about them while they learn more about us (ePals). I love that I can find people who have created some amazing lesson plans and feel the need to graciously share them with the rest of us uncreative folks. I love that because of blogging I can put my 2cents in on lots of different things, though if I have to create an identity I'm much less likely. I'd like to learn more about...oh what was it called...LiveID? I've been through so many blogs & sites that my brain is a wee bit fried now. :)

You have to be so careful with blogging. One little Oops, like forgetting to change your settings so your students CAN'T find you....because rest assured they are out there trying like the dickens to see if you really do Facebook or MySpace...and you are in trouble witha capital T. There is a certain standard to which teachers are held, just check out the most recent email from NEA Today titled "The Whole World (Wide Web) is Watching". We have to be so careful what we post out there.

My suggestion: DO NOT let students join your personal blog/Facebook/etc. Set-up a special blog for use with students. Don't even have it be a seperate blog in your Blogger account. You just can't be too careful!

Thing 4 & 5 (a little out of order because I forgot where I left off)

I decided to write about Things 4 & 5 together because I started doing Thing 5 before I even read it, because it was the natural thing to do after meeting the requirements from Thing 4. Way back in the day...Jan. 2001...when I first started my Master's degree, I was introduced to RSS and really wasn't impressed. What did I care. I didn't need to get a glimpse of EVERYONE's reality on a daily basis did I? I didn't see how RSS could take over and run my life! Now though, I Facebook & Twitter & occasionally MySpace...I know quite a lot about people I didn't even care about 5 years ago. AND now that I've been coerced into testing out RSS I've lost almost an entire weekend exploring and finding out all kinds of new and fun things to occupy my so very little precious time.

How much easier it is to read someone's blog post/twitter update than an entire magazine/journal/newspaper article. I think I've become a child of times, I have no patience for load times/download times/upload times, even the time it takes to read all of the "stuff" I want to know about. Give it to me short and sweet. That begs the question of how can I use this in my classroom?

I've found some pretty amazing things through the blog finders. Probably the best for me at the moment is a blog from a girl who's cat has a similar disease as one of mine. Acromegaly is the same in both cats and humans - pituitary gland tumor that causes excessive growth and a lot of other nastiness. There is little "out there" and I'd bet the Vets don't know much more. It's nice to find people going through the same kinds of situations. Who can help me understand this disease more than someone who has already experienced it? My next avenue of personal searching is to find other people with Ulcerative Colitis, with extremely mild symptoms. They are difficult to find....

The Shifted Librarian has a great blog with interesting info that will help me with my next possible path in life (School Library & Media hopefully). Great things to ponder and tons of useful information.

Post Australia Post Is the blog of a man who lived in Australia for a year. He's got some great lesson plan ideas posted there. All I need to do now is figure out how to use YouTube in my classroom, since it's blocked even on the teacher computer. :( There are tons of lesson plans out there and I'm hoping to find some exciting new activities this way. Why reinvent the wheel when I can find it online?

As the winner of a CPS system a few years back (at MACUL) I have found myself to be a bit of a slacker in actually using them. Typically I only use them for tests, which is better than not using them at all I suppose. Though, at MACUL this year, there was a new kind of response system that had texting capabilities. I would totally be able to use that more frequently! Ahh...I digress. So, interestingly enough, I came across multiple avenues for incorporating my "blue remotes" into my curriculum. Will definitely be spending more time checking these out! (Oh yeah, I forgot the newest models arent' blue anymore...they're white.)

As a relatively new Twitterer (? proper conjugation of Twitter?) I've found a podcast that teaches all the things you need to know to Tweet, Twitter, and Twoot. http://www.twooting.com/members/twooting I was hoping to add this site to my Bloglines, but can only "Follow" it on Twitter http://twitter.com/thepodcast So many places to go to "Follow" all the different feeds. Wish I could compact them all into one handy dandy piece of software. I know there are some out there, but they seem to all be in beta right now and you have to be "invited" to join the beta group. Anyone know of anything no longer in beta?

I think I'm a techie wanna-be sometimes. I want to use the technology in my classroom, but the constraints of the district make it difficult and sometimes make me begrudge ever being ahead of the times or even at pace with the times.

PS....Information Overload....I've been in info overload for like 10 years now! lol I do like how the bloglines gives me a one liner with a short summary. That way I can see if it interests me and keep reading or if not, just pass it by. Saves me from a lot of that wasted time I was talking about above...

Thing 1 and Thing 2

Why are you participating in 23 Things? What do you hope to learn? What new insights did you have during Thing 1? How does writing on the Internet, knowing anyone could read it, change how you write or feel about writing?

My initial reasoning for joining the 23 Things program was to get in some PD time outside of school, that was free. I figured it would be easy to do, because I am familiar with many things out there. But there are a few things I'd like to know more about. I have a Master's Degree from EMU in Educational Media & Technology. It's interesting to see how things have changed in the past 4 years, since I graduated. But, when it came down to getting started a couple weeks ago, I felt a strong lack of motivation. Maybe it's the season, maybe it's the lack of motivation of my students rubbing off on me. I really don't know. But.....

I did NOT expect to be inspired in the first THING! The article...was interesting. I can't imagine what kind of set-up/start-up work that took. But with everyone seemingly on board, it couldn't have been too difficult. The video, that is what grabbed my heart stings. That was what reached out a smacked my face and screamed, "Why are you sticking to traditional when you have this strong personal interest in technology?" So, I immediately e-mailed my co-teaching partner to tell her of my new found inspiration, because we were just talking about how we could motivated our unmotivated at-risk & special ed. kids. She's not nearly as excited by this as I am. The question becomes, how do I squeak this into our already packed curriculum, that she doesn't really want to give me any control over. Details...shmetails...as I stated in my response on Thing 1, we are constantly taking cell phones & mp3 players from students. There has to be a way to use those. I'm sure I can get the rules bent for my inspiring lessons. Well, I hope. Now, to find and create those inspiring lessons.

As for writing and posting on the web, I've been doing that for years. In college, I had a website that I created (after teaching myself HTML because there weren't readily available page creators back then) just for fun, with people I was chatting with all over the US. I've had some kind of online profile since then too. I'm terrible about blogging, preferring Facebook because I can "blog" in one or two sentences quite effectively. And, I can create longer blog style notes whenever I feel the urge or simply need to vent. I do not accept friend requests from students and I make it difficult for them to find me or view my pages. I do, however, have a few younger "friends" from church and family. Because of that, I do try to filter what I put out there and how I put it. Also, with my Mom suddenly appearing on FB, I've felt the need to be a little more filtered (but only a little).

I recently let my classroom website die, because no one used it but me and I couldn't justify the expense. There was a blog area on there that I would occasionally use. Now that I've been "forced" to create my own blog, I'm thinking already about how I can use it in my classroom. It is a constant fight to use technology in my school and this year, the defeat has rung loud and clear in my world. But this 23 Things is a light, shining bright enough to catch my attention and inspire and motivate me...where will I go from here? Someplace amazing I hope!